The GOP has been notorious the last 4 years for record levels of obstruction where even the most routine, simple things can't get done. At this point many within the party itself are increasingly frustrated with the latest debacle-Boehner's failed farm bill.
"Fallout from the farm bill’s failure is erupting behind closed doors. Almost a week after Republicans failed to pass the nearly $1 trillion, five-year agricultural package through the House, Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders are feeling the heat from frustrated lawmakers sick of screw-ups."
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/farm-bill-defeat-house-leadership-93477_Page2.html
It is sobering stuff. If they can't even get their act together enough to pass a farm bill what can they get done? Actually, I'm currently reading Hank Paulson's On the Brink about his handling of the 2008 financial crisis and right now I'm reading about the passage of TARP. What's very interesting-the whole book of course is very interesting-is that Boehner couldn't convince his GOPers to vote for it even though he personally thought it was the right thing.
http://www.amazon.com/Brink-Inside-Collapse-Global-Financial/dp/B006CDD6K0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372367939&sr=1-1&keywords=hank+paulson+on+the+brink
Nothing much has changed-Boehner still can't get anything done. What we continue see is that the GOP strategy of My way or the high way! doesn't work. Never really does-it's debatable whether it ever did. In the 90s they used it and this caused the government shutdown. There's no question that they lost the political battle in that case by a mile. Indeed, by 1998, Newt Gingrich was out of politics altogether and the GOP lost 5 seats in an off yer election-which was just unheard of.
Still, they did have some legislative victories like 'welfare reform' financial deregulation-though we saw who the losers were in that one; the American people and their economy-and some nice tax cuts for the rich.
What's really striking about the last 4 and a half years, is how few victories they have had. Say what you like about the President-he's been whacked again and again by many left-liberals for his first term performance; yet most of his objectives have been achieved. We can count his defeats on one hand-gun control; so far-and the sequester. What does the GOP have to show for its obstruction?
By playing all or nothing they usually come away with nothing-out on the highway. In 2011 they could have gotten a much better fiscal deal than the final fiscal cliff deal passed at the start of this year. In 2011 Nancy Pelosi had been willing to accept $1 million as where the Clinton era top tax rate would kick in; when Boehner proposed it in December it was a nonstarter.
Now the same thing looks set to happen with climate change. Obama plans to execute his environmental bill mostly via executive action. The GOP doesn't like this agenda-so what's their strategy? Mostly just try to use it against Democrats in 2014 by claiming that environmental measures are by definition job killing-which is far from the truth. It actually will create lots of jobs-how-after all, we need new technologies.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/aggregate-supply-aggregate-demand-and-coal/?_r=0&gwh=01B281F31D85D3C2D1F4CF86127351CD
The GOP though, as usual won't let facts get in the way-Paulson himself complained of their scorn for the 'fact checkers' during the debates on TARP. Yglesias discusses how short sighted it is:
"Darren Goode offers a rundown of GOP options for blocking Obama's new climate change initiatives and concludes that they really have no options. So what they're going to do instead of mounting a substantive response is "use Obama’s climate agenda to hammer Democratic incumbents and candidates in red states in 2014—and try to get them to cast tough votes" with things like "message votes seeking to cut off funding for EPA to work on the power plant rules."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/06/26/gop_s_lame_climate_counterplan.html
As sordid as the GOP seems to think compromise is, could they possibly have less to show if they tried it for once than they have for the usual all or nothing. demands?
UPDATE:
The usual logic is at work with the strong passage of immigration reform in the Senate: GOPers are threatening to take away Boehner's Speakership if he flouts the Hastert Rule.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/06/conservatives-threaten-depose-boehner-hastert-rule-immigration.php?ref=fpb
"Fallout from the farm bill’s failure is erupting behind closed doors. Almost a week after Republicans failed to pass the nearly $1 trillion, five-year agricultural package through the House, Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders are feeling the heat from frustrated lawmakers sick of screw-ups."
"Republican Reps. Kristi Noem of South Dakota and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota separately stood up at a GOP meeting Wednesday and confronted their leadership about its bumbling legislative strategy and inability to figure out a way forward on the massive legislation, according to multiple sources at the meeting."
"Noem, who once served in Republican leadership, took aim squarely at Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). She reminded him that he controls the House floor, and she drilled Cantor hard on his precise plans to mop up the mess, several Republicans who attended the meeting said. Cantor wasn’t able to outline a plan that satisfied Noem, and he blamed Democrats for the bill’s defeat."
"Noem — usually a quiet figure in GOP circles — also warned the 61 Republicans who opposed the farm bill after voting for tougher work requirements for food-stamp recipients that she will not be supporting them in the future. Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and other lawmakers were later heard on the floor backing Noem in her heated dispute with Cantor."
"Cramer, a first-term lawmaker, read aloud an editorial to his colleagues from a North Dakota newspaper, arguing that failing to pass a farm bill could end his brief congressional career. In an interview with POLITICO, Cramer said Republicans — especially committee chairmen — who voted against the farm bill are “jeopardizing the whole majority.”
It is sobering stuff. If they can't even get their act together enough to pass a farm bill what can they get done? Actually, I'm currently reading Hank Paulson's On the Brink about his handling of the 2008 financial crisis and right now I'm reading about the passage of TARP. What's very interesting-the whole book of course is very interesting-is that Boehner couldn't convince his GOPers to vote for it even though he personally thought it was the right thing.
http://www.amazon.com/Brink-Inside-Collapse-Global-Financial/dp/B006CDD6K0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372367939&sr=1-1&keywords=hank+paulson+on+the+brink
Nothing much has changed-Boehner still can't get anything done. What we continue see is that the GOP strategy of My way or the high way! doesn't work. Never really does-it's debatable whether it ever did. In the 90s they used it and this caused the government shutdown. There's no question that they lost the political battle in that case by a mile. Indeed, by 1998, Newt Gingrich was out of politics altogether and the GOP lost 5 seats in an off yer election-which was just unheard of.
Still, they did have some legislative victories like 'welfare reform' financial deregulation-though we saw who the losers were in that one; the American people and their economy-and some nice tax cuts for the rich.
What's really striking about the last 4 and a half years, is how few victories they have had. Say what you like about the President-he's been whacked again and again by many left-liberals for his first term performance; yet most of his objectives have been achieved. We can count his defeats on one hand-gun control; so far-and the sequester. What does the GOP have to show for its obstruction?
By playing all or nothing they usually come away with nothing-out on the highway. In 2011 they could have gotten a much better fiscal deal than the final fiscal cliff deal passed at the start of this year. In 2011 Nancy Pelosi had been willing to accept $1 million as where the Clinton era top tax rate would kick in; when Boehner proposed it in December it was a nonstarter.
Now the same thing looks set to happen with climate change. Obama plans to execute his environmental bill mostly via executive action. The GOP doesn't like this agenda-so what's their strategy? Mostly just try to use it against Democrats in 2014 by claiming that environmental measures are by definition job killing-which is far from the truth. It actually will create lots of jobs-how-after all, we need new technologies.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/aggregate-supply-aggregate-demand-and-coal/?_r=0&gwh=01B281F31D85D3C2D1F4CF86127351CD
The GOP though, as usual won't let facts get in the way-Paulson himself complained of their scorn for the 'fact checkers' during the debates on TARP. Yglesias discusses how short sighted it is:
"Darren Goode offers a rundown of GOP options for blocking Obama's new climate change initiatives and concludes that they really have no options. So what they're going to do instead of mounting a substantive response is "use Obama’s climate agenda to hammer Democratic incumbents and candidates in red states in 2014—and try to get them to cast tough votes" with things like "message votes seeking to cut off funding for EPA to work on the power plant rules."
"This is emblematic of the dysfunction that's gripped American political culture. The GOP wants a total victory against efforts to curb CO2 emissions, but they can't obtain a total victory, so their fallback option is ... political posturing."
"A much better idea would be to negotiate and find a solution that environmentalists and conservatives alike can prefer to EPA regulation—carbon pricing, with some of the revenue used to reduce other taxes and some of the revenue for clean energy investments. It'd be an easy win-win for everyone relative to the course we're currently on. But it would require Republicans to come to the table and bargain over policy outcomes instead of positioning themselves for talking points. And ever since 2009 they've been stuck on this one-note theory of governance that's about obstructing everything that can be obstructed (Ted Cruz announced today he'll block literally all State Department nominees) and then whining about everything else. The notion of tactical flexibility where sometimes you cut a deal in order to get a better outcome rather than just saying "the worse, the better" for the purpose of political messaging is totally out the window. It's frustrating and depressing."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/06/26/gop_s_lame_climate_counterplan.html
As sordid as the GOP seems to think compromise is, could they possibly have less to show if they tried it for once than they have for the usual all or nothing. demands?
UPDATE:
The usual logic is at work with the strong passage of immigration reform in the Senate: GOPers are threatening to take away Boehner's Speakership if he flouts the Hastert Rule.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/06/conservatives-threaten-depose-boehner-hastert-rule-immigration.php?ref=fpb
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